UPCOMING EVENTS

StepUp provides ways for local businesses to get an online presence, and the deal is part of Intuit’s allianace with Google to boost revenue by moving companies online.

StepUp’s technology platform will power Intuit’s new QuickBooks Product Listing Service, which is designed to help local businesses attract customers by making their product information and images available online — through “established entities such as Google.”

See our piece about the Intuit-Google partnership here. StepUp provides a way to take Quickbooks product inventory information and put it into Google Base software, so that people using Google can search how much inventory a business is carrying for a certain product.

StepUp will deliver their services under the QuickBooks brand and continue to be based in San Francisco, the companies said. The StepUp unit is led by Kendall Fargo, who founded StepUp in February 2004 and is now a general manager at Intuit, reporting to Brad Smith.

StepUp had raised under $10 million in venture financing from investors, according to VentureWire. The investors included Allegis Capital, Granite Ventures, and Pennsylvania Equity Partners. Granite’s Standish O’Grady said he invested in the company’s $6.6 million round less than a year ago, and that the deal yielded a “good return.”